“Sir, thank you for meeting with me today.  I have some interesting communications and I think I have a plan of action that could be helpful in our efforts to damage the networks in the Mid-Atlantic region,” the young agent offered.

“I’m listening.”

“I assume you are familiar with the case against the Murphy group… smuggling, money laundering, and this kidnapping business with one of the sons, sir.”

“Yes, I am, Agent Sky.  But what of it?  The Murphys are all on the run.  We don’t have any credible intel on their locations.  Or do you have something?” the older man asked.

“I do, Sir.  I ran a few ‘less than authorized’ taps, and one of them might be bearing fruit.  I would like permission to pursue it.”

“You do know that you wouldn’t be able to use any of the intel in court, and it is also likely that anything stemming from that could be tossed.  How do you intend to get around that?”

“The youngest son, Paul Murphy, has a contact in the Hampton Roads area that he has been in touch with.  They have an in-person meeting later this week.  I would like to recruit him to turn his father so that we can have everything he knows.”

“We have tried to talk Sean Murphy into WitSec, but he isn’t interested, Sky.  Was that all?”

“No, sir.  My thought is that he didn’t want to be in the program…  What if we helped him disappear instead?  His family will need identities and a way out of the country.  In exchange for his information, we can give him what he needs.  He couldn’t come back, so he wouldn’t be our problem anymore, either.  I think I can work that deal through the son… get them set up to leave the country in exchange for the father’s cooperation.”

“It is an intriguing idea, Agent Sky, but there are a lot of forces that don’t want to let Paul Murphy off the hook.  Apparently, he pissed off the wrong people.  I don’t know that I can push that through.”

“Sir, with all due respect, this could be an opportunity to strike a hard blow against drug proliferation across a large portion of the US market.  With tight OpSec and limited knowledge of the mission, we might be able to get this done.  I don’t think our part of the deal would need to be known, even to people like the WitSec group.  But I need to know within the next forty-eight hours in order to proceed.”

Moments after Agent Sky left the small office, Deputy Director Joseph Mullins got on his secure phone and called a contact he had at GRIT Group. 

“Jason?  It’s Joe.  I have a request for you.  Can you get someone from my team on the Prince task force?  I just need to keep an eye on them.  They might do damage to a case we are working.”

…

“Yes, Daddy,” Amy said, tears starting to fall down her cheeks for a second time. 

Amy ran in the door and locked it behind her.  She called out to her mom to call the police. 

“Is that you, Jack?” Paul said before the door opened all the way. 

“No…  you can call me Mr. Prince, Paul.  And I think you should leave.  Now.”

“I’d like to talk with Amy first, if you don’t mind, Bill” Paul said, arrogantly. 

“No, Paul.  As I said, you need to leave now.  The police are on their way, and you don’t want to be here when they get here.”

“No… Bill…  I’m pretty sure I should have a word with Amy first.  I’d like you to get out of my way.”

“First, you need to call me Mr. Prince.  Second, it’s almost midnight.  I’m NOT bringing my daughter out here to ‘have a word’ with a rude shithead trespassing in my garage.  You can leave, you can stand there until the police arrive, or I can toss you out on your ass.  It’s your choice, but I would guess that you are down to about two minutes before the police arrive and take away a couple of your options.”

Paul started advancing through the garage.  Bill was thinking to himself that he really needed to clean up more.  There were tools scattered all over workbenches around the garage… breaker bars, ratchet handles, big adjustable wrenches.  Those all made good weapons.  And he didn’t want to have any of them used against him. 

“Wow,” Paul said with a tone of fake admiration.  “Does the Snap-On truck visit you at the house?  You have some really nice tools.”

Paul picked up a half inch drive ratchet handle.  He started weighing it in his hand… with an implied threat that it would be useful to hit someone with.  Bill thought there was still a breaker bar and cheater pipe on the bench behind him, and he was backing that way.  He leaned back, feeling around behind him on the bench until he found the tools he was looking for.

“You really don’t want to do this, Paul.  You need to put down the wrench and walk away.  I think you are down to about a minute before the police arrive.”  Crap, where were they… he was going to give someone a piece of his mind about response time tomorrow morning.  “There is still time.  You can still walk away.  Do you think this is going to win Amy’s heart back or something?”

“Do you think this is about ‘winning her heart back’, Bill?  I don’t.  I think this is about her disrespecting me and carrying on behind my back.  How long has she been cheating on me with that little punk, huh?  Is she putting out for him?  Or are you just trying not to notice?  Of course, I guess it doesn’t really matter.  I think I’m going to have to teach both of them a lesson.  If there is anything that makes me madder than a cheater, I don’t know what it might be.  You know, my mom cheated on my dad.  Maybe that’s why it bothers me so much.”

“Paul, the ice you are on is getting thinner.  Insulting my daughter and me isn’t helping you get anything you want.”

“Sure, it is, because I have been wronged and I want retribution.  First, I’m going to take some on you, and then I’m going to take some on that little bitch and her toy.  What do you think of that?”

Bill saw past Paul to the blue and red flashing lights outside.  They should be in the door any moment.  He really didn’t want to fight this kid.  Aside from the fact that Paul was pretty large, six-two and two hundred and twenty-five pounds of sixteen-year-old varsity football linebacker, he didn’t want it on his conscience if he did permanent damage to this child.  Bill only fought one way… for survival.  All the way.  He wasn’t afraid, he just didn’t want to lose control of himself. 

He didn’t know if Paul could see reflections of the flashing lights coming through the door yet, but a moment later the door to the house opened and a police officer, followed by Amy and Chrissy, stepped into the garage.  Paul turned to leave but ran straight into the other responding officer.  He still had the ratchet handle in his hand.

As soon as he saw her, his knees started to quake.  Her blonde hair shimmered in the moonlight.  She wasn’t standing with Paul, but he was only an arm’s reach away.  They weren’t going out again, were they?  Was Jack going to have to get in a fight for asking Amy out?  Even if he and Amy weren’t together, Paul thought of her as property… he had acted like he’d owned her for years.  Almost all the way back to that first day she was at his school.  Jack knew he could take Paul down if he had to, but he didn’t want to be “that guy” and cause a ruckus at someone’s party.

As Jack paused there in the doorway, Mrs. Prince strode out from the kitchen door and directly toward Paul.

“Paul, can you help me with something?” she asked.

“In a minute,” he replied. 

Jack turned to Mrs. Prince, “I can help you.  What do you need?” he said as he intercepted her.

“Jonathan, hi.  What you can help me with is to get my daughter away from that jerk,” She whispered. 

Wow…  Jack didn’t know what to think. 

“Call me Jack.  Everyone does,” Jack said as he smiled.

Mrs. Prince continued walking over to Paul and lightly took his elbow.  Jack heard her mention something about a box on a shelf she couldn’t reach.  He heard Paul ask her where her husband was… and why he couldn’t get it.  But she was undeterred.  She was finally able to manage getting him away from the area Amy was in. 

Courage was way down from that eleven a moment ago… maybe a seven.  He could still do this.  He looked over at Amy.  ‘How could he be intimidated by a girl that only stood a couple of inches over five feet?  Heck, she couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds dripping wet.  Because I’m not fighting her, I’m asking her out’, he thought to himself.  ‘This is WAY scarier.’

He closed the distance… just a couple feet away. 

Courage down to five… tops. 

“Hi Amy”

“Hey Jonathan.  What’s up?  Are you ok?  You look a little… pale.”

“I’m good… I think.  Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“I’d like that.”

“Like in private… or something?”

“I guess,” as she kind of scrunched up her forehead, wondering what was going on.  He looked like he was about to pass out.  She was thinking she might need to find him a seat. “Should we go into the kitchen?”

“NO…  I mean, no… maybe we can just walk out across the yard…” he said, his voice cracking on the first word.

As she turned to walk out into the yard, she slid her arm into his.  He didn’t even know if he could talk now.  When had she actually touched him last, Jack thought?  He suddenly remembered her punching him in the arm in sixth grade… was that it? 

“Are you ok, Jonathan?  You are acting kind of weird.”

She was the only person that ever called him Jonathan.  Well, her and his grandmother, but that was it. 

“I’m ok… I… “

“Want to sit on the bench?”

“Ahh, sure.”

“So, what’s on your mind?”  She looked at him intently.

“Will you marry me?”

“Jonathan…  I… I… I…” she said, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Wait…  I meant will you go out with me… like on a date?” he quickly added as his eyes drifted toward the ground.  Jack wanted to crawl into a hole and die.  He was mortified.  He had just asked her to marry him and even in the pale light at the back of the yard, he could see that all the color drained out of her face.  His too.  He was positive that if he tried to stand up right now, he would pass out. 

“Oh…  You scared me for a minute there.  I mean you are nice and everything, but…”

There are excerpts on here under the working title, New Life and Reveal. They will be linked in the tags for New Life… that should bring up any excerpts I have pushed to the blog, but know that there have been changes made since they were published. One of the big changes is that the Cooks, Jim and Dave, are now Jim and Dave Chance. Kind of worked with the title.

This book isn’t part of the main story line of the Dixon-Prince series, but Jack and Amy Dixon are prominent through the story. Warren Chestik, Jack Dixon’s head of security is also more prominent, which has lead me to begin writing his story. That one has the working title Sniper, and is about half done. I think that one might keep the title, though. There are also a few excerpts from that story on the blog.

If you haven’t already, you should subscribe to the blog. Posts are generally Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and subscribers get an email on Saturdays telling them what the posts were for the week. A few times a year I also send out a special notice to subscribers… like the one they got when this book opened for pre-order, or if I have a book on sale or free. Subscribers also get the ebook Escape for free.

I would love for you to join me here, Goodreads, Facebook, MeWe or Gab, too. And I always enjoy getting feedback.

In this excerpt, he is rescuing Candace Clinton, who has been doing undercover work for Antonio Sky of the Narcotic Enforcement Agency. Her cover was blown and she had to run, but her plane was shot down. He is nearby (for his own reasons) and responds to Jack’s call to help her.

Warren scrambled down the side of the steep ravine, grabbing onto roots and jumping from boulder to boulder.  He’d spotted the wreckage of the center section while he was close to the top of the ridge, but as he moved closer, he spotted the tail of the plane downstream.  From his high perch he could also see some of the contents strewn down the hillside. 

A moment later he spotted the nose section.  The damage was even visible from a distance.  Then he thought he saw something move near it.  He reached into his backpack and pulled out his binoculars.  Jackpot. 

With the binoculars stowed safely back in his pack, he started angling toward the nose section.  The going was a little rougher than it had been going straight down, but he decided it would be faster than going to the bottom and scrambling along the creek then climbing back up to the wreckage. 

It took thirty minutes for him to make his way to where he thought he might have seen Candace.  As he got closer, he called out to her but didn’t get a response.  He kept hiking toward the wreckage. 

“Warren?” he heard a few minutes later. 

“Candace… I’ll be there in a minute.  Are you injured?”

“Bumps and bruises, but nothing serious.  My pilot and co-pilot didn’t make it, though.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” she replied.  “They are in there, but they took the brunt.  I’m sure.”  Her voice started to fail. 

“I’m not sure what the exfil strategy is, but I’ll see what I can do.”  He pulled a phone from his bag and tapped redial.  “Jack, I have Candace.  She’s safe.  Bumped and bruised, but no serious injuries.  Her pilot and co-pilot weren’t so lucky.  Can we recover them?”

…

“Roger that.  I’ll keep an eye out for them.  We need two bags.”

Warren ended the call and then turned back to Candace. 

“Jack has a team that should be air-dropping in any minute.  That will be followed up in about an hour by a chopper for the exfil, unless we call it off for some reason.”

“Why would we call it off?” Candace asked. 

“Rumor has it that Jimenez is trying to get a team here as well.  The chopper won’t come in if we are in a firefight.  We can hold them off, but if they come in and someone shoots at them, they won’t come back, and we will have to make other arrangements.”  To Warren, “other arrangements” sounded suspiciously like hiking fifty miles through ungodly terrain until Jack Dixon could personally fly them out.

As if on cue, a C-130 flew overhead.  They both looked up in time to see eight people step out of the back in a spaced line.  Their chutes opened.  Warren glanced down to see a text from Jack saying that his guys had just jumped in, then he grabbed a shiny piece of metal to signal them with, flashing it toward them in the sun.

***

Ric’s men had jumped in with two body bags to gather the pilot and co-pilot.  As Warren helped Candace to the top of the ridge, where they expected to find the easiest landing zone for the chopper, Several of Ric’s men extricated the pilot and co-pilot from the wreckage of the airplane.  Another man had worked his way down to the tailpiece to search for the black box.  Candace had told him where she left it. 

“Can we hurry that chopper up?” Warren asked Ric.  “It looks like there is a team coming up the valley.  I’d guess two miles downstream, but that only gives us an hour until they are within shooting range.”

“Let me see what I can do.”

Ric made a call through comms to get his guys hurrying, while he talked to Jack about the estimated time of arrival for the chopper.  After explaining the situation, they made the decision to head north along the top of the ridge, keeping a consistent distance between them and Jimenez’s men to the south.  It would buy them a little extra time.  A pair of Ric’s men broke off and headed south along the ridge. 

“Chopper ETA is about ten minutes.  We should be in the clear unless they have air assets coming in, and radar says they are clear.  Someone flying low in the valley could be invisible inn the ground clutter, though,” Ric said. 

Warren swept all around to see if he could see anything, but he didn’t pick up any movement nearby from the top of the ridge. 

Half a mile south there was a small explosion just below the top of the ridge.  It resulted in a massive rockslide down into the valley.  He could see the two men that had broken off from the main group earlier running back along the mountainous spine. 

“That should slow them down, Mr. Chestik,” one of them said, passing by. 

A few minutes later a Chinook helicopter could be seen flying along the ridge.  The pilot spun the craft around and hovered just over the edge of the ridge, backing it to their location like a truck.  Warren was impressed by the skill the pilot had displayed, not having a landing zone.  The chopper wouldn’t have been any more stable had it been parked on the ground.  The tail section of the chopper lowered to allow them to quickly load up.  As Ric Espinoza cleared the tail ramp, it started to close, and the chopper sped northward, back from where it had come.